Recently manufacturers have found a large market for dedicated cardiac single photo emission computed tomography (SPECT) systems. Small field-of-view (FOV) cardiac SPECT systems have become popular due to their compact design.
One company, Spectrum Digirad, developed dedicated cardiac SPECT systems that are small enough to be installed in a physician's office. These dedicated SPECT systems have relatively small gamma cameras, which are barely large enough to cover the heart. One feature of this system is that the detectors remain stationary and the projections are collected as the patient, sitting upright in a chair, is rotated.
Multi-pinhole collimation is the state-of-the-art in small animal SPECT, with the main advantage being the pinhole magnification effect, which allows a high-sensitivity, high-resolution image to be obtained. Taking advantage of modern large-area gamma cameras and multi-detector systems, the multi-pinhole technology is able to provide enough data for cardiac imaging without rotating the system gantry. A stationary system can take very fast snapshots, obtaining true dynamic imaging. The stationary system makes patient motion correction easier, and is less expensive to build and maintain.